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Zalmoxes
Zalmoxes (named after the Dacian deity Zalmoxis) is a genus of herbivorous dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of what is now Romania. It is classified as a rhabdodontid iguanodont. History of discovery Zalmoxes was first known from numerous fossils found in Transylvania, which were named as the species Mochlodon robustum by Baron Franz Nopcsa in 1899. The species name referred to its robust build.1 In 1915 Nopcsa renamed the species as Rhabdodon robustum, amended by in 2003 by David B. Weishampel, Coralia-Maria Jianu, Zoltan Csiki and David B. Norman. Weishampel et al. (2003) published a paper on new remains from Romania, which they found to represent a new species. They found R. robustus was sufficiently different from Rhabdodon, and thus named the new genus Zalmoxes for the former. The genus refers to the Dacian deity Zalmoxis (sometimes spelled Zalmoxes), who travelled to ancient Romania and ended up being deified as a god. In addition, Weishampel et al. named the new specimens Zalmoxes shqiperorum, after Shqiperia the albainain name for Albania, where Nopcsa had a special relation Description Zalmoxes was a rather small bipedal herbivore, but stoutly built with a large triangular head featuring a pointed beak and a short neck. The species Z. robustus was smaller, 2 to 3 meters long (7 to 10 ft). Z. shqiperorum was 4 to 4.5 meters long (13 to 15 ft). The small size was explained by Nopcsa as an instance of insular dwarfism, however Ősi et al. (2012) brought up evidence that Zalmoxes was more or less the same as the basal condition of Rhabdodontidae; that Mochlodon experienced minor dwarfism; and that Rhabdodon experienced gigantism on the "mainland". Z. robustus is known from about 80% of the skull. However, no complete articulated skull is known, and most of the bones do not overlap and are found in isolation. Weishampel et al. found that these likely represented one individual, as the bones were from the same formation and are the same colour. Four individuals were identified by Nopcsa for Z. robustus, and from these it can be seen that there is skeletal variation in the species. Like with the cranial material, vertebrae of Z. robustus are often found isolated. All regions of the vertebral column are represented in the fossil record, although no sternal plates have been found yet. The sacrum includes three vertebrae, with two sacrodorsals (dorsal vertebrae in the sacrum) and three sacrocaudals (caudal vertebrae in the sacrum). The limb and girdle bones are also well represented, with only the hands (manus) and feet (pes) mostly lacking.2 While more poorly known than Z. robustus, Z. shqiperorum is still known from a relatively large amount of the skeleton. Only two mostly complete skeletons are known, the holotype adult, and a referred juvenile. The lower jaw (dentary) of Z. shqiperorum is relatively shorter than the equivalent in Z. robustus, although it is much larger. Ossified tendons are known from the juvenile specimen, showing that they were circular or elliptical in cross section and have fine striations in Z. shqiperorum. Cervical, dorsal and caudal vertebrae are known from Z. shqiperorum, although the former two are only represented by juvenile material. A complete articulated sacrum is known for Z. shqiperorum, with three vertebrae and at least two sacrodorsals. No manual material is known from the species, although a metatarsal and a few phalanges are known. Classification Category:Cretaceous dinosaurs Category:Dinosaurs of Europe Category:Iguanodonts